Last week the Innovation Report on UK Hydrogen was published and is well worth reading, though the government departments of Transprt, Business, and DESNZ are still not getting together in a rational way. Agriculture should be moving from diesel to hydrogen but not much is happening in that ministry. A further paper on Case for Action is expected in 3 months. The ambition is for Britain to gain 10% of global hydrogen in 2050, which should amount to around £1 trillion. As before it is more talk than reality. www.hydrogeninnovation.co.uk/reports/uk-capabilities/
The results would be astonishing, with 2050 revenues around £70bn and more than 400,000 H-technology jobs.
Production of hydrogen is the first objective, processing it into ammonia and other green products. Second are propulsion systems for transport, which is not being promoted by UK goverrnment at present, illustrated by the only 4 hydrogen stations operating in UK, contrasting with 400 in China. Third, industry needs hydrogen and that is the current DESNZ approach. Fourth, we need end to end hydrogen storage, whatever that means. Missing from the report is the dearth of renewable electricity in England, the ridiculous prices charged by National Grid and the big 6, the very small amount of green hydrogen we are making this year, and the absence of any CCS which has been boosted for 20 years now, without any output.
Innovation is the key, not pure research which seems to be soaking up all money at the moment in Universities like Birmingham and Imperial College. We must apply the funding to making profits ASAP.